Mamdani Blames E-Bike Sellers for Crisis He Refuses to Police

When real world problems arise, you can always count on socialists to fall back on blaming their old ideological bugaboos rather than addressing them head on.

That appears to be the case in New York City where Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been forced to deal with an escalating problem of e-bike fatalities.

You can guess who he blamed for the problem.

“The City has issued cease-and-desist orders to 42 online retailers demanding they immediately stop selling these illegal devices to customers in New York City’s 175 ZIP codes,” the mayor’s office announced. “The products being marketed and shipped into the city exceed legal limits for speed, weight or other safety requirements and cannot lawfully be sold or operated on City streets.”

The retailers have until August 18 to comply with the cease-and-desist order.

Of course, many of the e-bikes sold by these retailers are simply modified to go beyond the original safety limits.

This measure couldn’t be more predictable and likely fruitless. On the surface, Mamdani’s policy seems somewhat reasonable.

New York City is going through a rash of pedestrian fatalities linked to e-bikes, and the problem is getting worse.

The city government should be looking to address this.

But like every good leftist, Mamdani finds it far more convenient to blame objects and the supposedly greedy corporations rather than the real culprits.

Previous Mayor Eric Adams at some point realized the e-bike problem was something he couldn’t ignore and at least targeted the source. Under his administration the city lowered the speed limit for bikes and added criminal penalties for those who were driving recklessly.

Maybe that’s harsh, but it at least placed the burden of compliance on individual users who choose to break the law—and there are many who do.

If you spend any time walking in the city you will encounter e-bikers, often food app delivery people, driving unbelievably recklessly.

I’ve had so many near misses with New York City e-bikers driving way too fast and breaking the law. They blow through red lights, go far above the speed limit, and frequently nail pedestrians. I often worry about myself and especially my wife when we take our daughter and stroller to the city.

Some of them make the crazy taxi and ride-share drivers seem downright tame in comparison. So, it makes sense to up enforcement and penalties on this kind of behavior.

Reporter Jesse Singal said it perfectly on X.

“I’ve said this before but basically every day I witness driver behavior that could kill someone,” he wrote. “It’s insane. Even just basic stuff like not blocking crosswalks, forcing moms w/strollers to cut into a traffic lane. Just *enforce the s—* out of potentially fatal behavior!”

Yeah, you tell ‘em.

Of course, Mamdani, like any good socialist, doesn’t believe in individual consequences, personal responsibility, or any of that business.

He immediately removed the criminal penalties for reckless e-bikers when he took office and made it seem like traffic enforcement was some kind of cruel burden.

“Every New Yorker on our roads, whether driving or biking, deserves to be treated fairly,” he said in a statement in March. “By ending criminal summonses for low-level traffic offenses, we’re ensuring cyclists and e-bike riders — including those who deliver our food and groceries — are treated like others on the road.”

Since the problem hasn’t stopped, Mamdani was pushed to take further action. And hitting the capitalists was the best he could come up with. It very much reminds me of when Chicago sued automobile makers for not putting better safety measures on their vehicles when the city got hit with a spike in auto thefts.

There’s a problem with Mamdani’s plan though, even if he doesn’t think punishing individual lawbreakers is a good idea.

The city is currently awash in modified e-bikes. Mamdani was asked at the press conference announcing the crackdown if he would do something about the countless ones currently in use and said “for now, this is our focus.”

A spokesperson for the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance said in an interview with the New York Post that Mamdani’s law is effectively worthless.

“He would not commit to enforcement or e-vehicle registration,” the spokesperson said. “We are left with the same failed policies that created this deadly public health crisis, which has plagued the city for five years. Look at ER stats — it is crystal clear that e-vehicle trauma admissions are only increasing, all while the mayor does absolutely nothing.”

So, Mamdani has merely created the mirage of doing something. He’s good at that. But unless New York aggressively addresses the problem of reckless driving, nothing will change.